Q: What is a “high commercial intent keyword”?

A: They are keyword searches that show a more specific desire to purchase

An example would be where a searcher is looking to buy a product or service, like: “buy cordless phone”.

Whereas most organic searches that don’t have high commercial intent are less likely to receive as many PPC ads on the results page (SERP). Examples of low commercial intent would be more research based like “Who is Thomas Edison?” or “When is the election?”.

Research by Wordstream found that for these valuable, high commercial intent keyword searches, paid search advertising listings gave the “free” organic search listings a resounding beat-down.

Google is clearly making a big attempt to differentiate the two and the infographic below shows some really interesting numbers on the amount of screen real-estate being taken over by PPC for the commercial intent searches.

Note: Don’t forget to tweet the awesome “smartypants” stats at the end of the post.

About Oli Gardner

Unbounce co-founder Oli Gardner has seen more landing pages than anyone on the planet. He’s obsessed with identifying and reversing bad marketing practices, and his disdain for marketers who send campaign traffic to their homepage is legendary, resulting in landing page rants that can peel paint off an unpainted wall. A prolific international keynote speaker, Oli is on a mission to rid the world of marketing mediocrity by using data-informed copywriting, design, interaction, and psychology to create a more delightful experience for marketers and customers alike.
He was recently named the "The 2018 Marketer to Watch," in the under 46 category, by his mother.